Photo: Getty Images
A North Carolina officer has been suspended for 40 hours after video showed him repeatedly punching a woman during an arrest.
On Tuesday (December 12), the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released body camera footage of the November arrest as they announced the 40-hour suspension of Officer Vincent Pistone, per Spectrum News.
The suspension came after a bystander video went viral of officers holding a woman, who has been identified as Christina Pierre, on the ground as one repeatedly hit her.
According to the police, an officer initially approached Pierre and a second individual, Anthony Lee, while they were at a bus stop smoking marijuana, which is illegal in North Carolina.
Police said Pierre resisted arrest. The department confirmed that an officer kneed Pierre seven times and punched her 10 times. According to police, the officer punched her in the thigh “to try to gain compliance."
A review board found Pistone's use of force to be unjustified.
“Fourteen strikes to the female’s leg came after her hands were behind her back. These strikes were not deemed justified. If the officer made an assessment after three leg strikes, he would have seen that they were effective, and the female’s hands were behind her back," police chief Johnny Jennings said in a statement.
The department said an investigation into the incident remains ongoing. Six other officers involved in the arrest were exonerated by CMPD's Internal Affairs Board, Jennings said.
Watch body camera footage of the incident here.
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